DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of Hermleigh, Scurry County — and it is quite a story. It starts in 1907, out on the Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railroad, where two men — H. W.
Harlin and R. C. Herm — surveyed a brand new townsite.
A railroad town rising out of the Texas plain, pulling in folks from a community to the northeast called Wheat. The post office, the store, the church — they picked up and moved southwest to this new spot, and Hermleigh was open for business. And business it did.
By the time that same year was out, this trade center for livestock farmers had two banks, a lumber yard, and a newspaper. Two banks. In a brand new town.
That tells you something about the ambition in the air. Then in 1909 they put up a two-story brick school — two stories, brick, standing right there on the West Texas plain like a statement of permanence. And in 1911 the Santa Fe Railroad came through, adding a second line to a town that wasn't even a decade old yet.
Now here's where the tale takes a turn. Come 1918, someone in this town decided the name Hermleigh wasn't grand enough for the moment. The Great War was raging, and a particular war hero was being honored across the country.
So the town changed its name — officially — to Foch. Just Foch. Wore that name like a medal.
But here's the thing about a name that's been yours since the beginning. It has a way of calling you back. By 1921, the old name was reinstated.
Hermleigh again. Whatever the enthusiasm of 1918 had stirred up, three years was apparently enough of it. And if all that weren't enough to hold your attention, consider what's sitting just six miles to the east.
Sand Stone Canyon — where Indian pictographs mark the rock walls, left by hands far older than any railroad survey. And somewhere nearby, the earth has given up skeletons of extinct mammals, excavated right out of that ancient ground. So Hermleigh has been a railroad town, a boomtown, a war tribute, a town that changed its mind, and — all along — the neighbor of deep time itself.
Not bad for a place that started as a survey point in 1907.
What the marker says
Townsite surveyed 1907 by H. W. Harlin and R. C. Herm, on Roscoe, Snyder & Pacific Railroad. Post office, store and church moved here from Wheat, community to the northeast. In 1907 new town--a trade center for livestock farmers--had 2 banks, a lumber yard, a newspaper; 2-story brick school was built 1909. Santa Fe Railroad came through in 1911. In 1918, a war hero was honored by town's name change to "Foch". Old name was reinstated 1921. Six miles east is Sand Stone Canyon, with Indian pictographs. Skeletons of extinct mammals have been excavated nearby. (1966)